My Journey in Photography
I started my photography journey in a very strange way in November of 2019. That year for Halloween, I dyed my hair blonde and dressed up as Leonard from Memento. To complete the character, I wanted to carry around a Polaroid camera. Really, that was one of the main reasons that I decided to be Guy Pierce's character in the first place: because I thought it would be fun to integrate taking pictures of dressed-up people on Halloween into my costume. At the time, I didn't know that he was carrying an SX-70, so I bought an Instax Wide 300 because that was the easiest to find and still printed relatively large photos.
I enjoyed shooting Instax, but I wanted something that I could practice on without spending so much money per shot. At the time, I was going to estate sales with my girlfriend on a regular basis and I heard that you could find old film cameras at estate sales and garage sales, so I started hunting for them during our outings. The first one I found was an Asahi Pentax Honeywell Spotmatic for $40. I now know that wasn't a great deal. I had a blast shooting 35mm film on that for a while and I continued to shoot instant film. During the pandemic, I would bring cameras on walks and hikes and just shoot everything I could. It was great practice because there were such low stakes. It was just a private hobby for me back then. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to many estate sales at that time so I was stuck with the few cameras that I had. Luckily, things started becoming safer and I was able to start going back to estate sales and hunting for new film cameras again. Since then, I have purchased about two dozen vintage film cameras.
Nowadays, I shoot mostly Instax Wide on my Instax Wide 300 and Lomography Lomo'Instant Wide cameras, but I also enjoy shooting Polaroid film on my SX-70 and 600 film on my converted SX-70 camera, 35mm on my Pentax K-1000's, my point-and-shoot 35mm Olympus infiniti stylus, and my two 3D cameras the Nishika N8000 and the Nimslo 3D.
You can see my work here, and on Instagram @jakeh.art.man - all images are one of a kind and available for purchase! Send me a DM or use the Contact page on my website.
Also: check back later or reach out to me for information on purchasing frames for your instant photos!
My Philosophy on Photography
My philosophy in regards to all of my art is that I create what I enjoy consuming and share it with others. I believe that photography must ultimately look good and art is meant to be shared. The things I shoot and the things I choose to share are simply what I think looks good. If I can do more, that's just a bonus. I shoot a lot of things that I don't think are worth showing to other people because I don't find them aesthetically pleasing.
I find that it's only after reflecting on my images that I can get a sense of what appeals to me about my subjects and what my perspective really is. It's probably partially because I'm still new to photography, and perhaps partially the nature of art, that makes it that way. I don't go out choosing to capture the beauty of nature (for example) I just make art out of what appeals to me.
On reflection, I believe that I try to capture pure nature and pure industrialism--as well as their cohesion and tension. I'm very interested in the perceived battle between the natural world and humanistic endeavors. I am awe-inspired by the beautiful aspects of both individually and I enjoy juxtaposing the two as well as finding the harmonies between the two.
Of course, the reason that I am doing photography in the first place is because I enjoy the process of photography. I've had to learn how to work the cameras, how to expose an image, and how to compose a photograph. I just enjoy doing it and I look forward to honing my craft and continuing to share my work with you.